1830
Now the fun really begins!
A momentous year for Hannah and Mary Ann
Bec desperately wants a time machine. I’d be happy to chat to Hannah for a few hours!
It’s my opinion, nothing more, that Hannah and Celea had a long time friendship, and if they did, they maintained contact somehow. Hannah would have known when where and whom Celea married, and she would have known Celea gave birth to a son, certainly within a few months of the birth.
11th April. William Alexander Peckham is baptised(46) in Christ Church Newcastle
The downhill slide in the life of Thomas Benton quickens roughly about now. Whatever the reason, he finds himself in the Hyde Park Barracks, and decides to do a runner.
What happened to an assigned convict when their services were no longer required, where did they go? I don’t know! I suspect women went back to The Factory. Maybe the blokes went to the Barracks until they were reassigned ?
Thomas Absconds from the Hyde Park Barracks(47)
15th May The Principal Superintendent of Convicts Office informs the Sydney Gazette of a list of convicts “having absconded from the individuals and Employments set against their Names”. The list is published on Tuesday 18th May. A week later Thomas is still at large and the revised list is published on 25th May
Did Thomas meet up with Hannah and their 2 year old Mary? It’s hard to imagine they did get together, Hannah was still serving a Life Sentence and the penalties for harboring an escaped criminal were severe.
3 June Thomas is Apprehended(48)
There is no doubt Thomas would have been punished in some way, floggings at the Hyde Park Barracks gradually gave way to more “humane” punishments, such as solitary confinement on bread and water. Repeat offenders were put in irons and assigned to road/iron gangs.
Within 3 years Thomas dies in the Liverpool Lunatic Asylum, aged 35 (ish).
November - Hannah falls pregnant with her second daughter. If she did adhere to the conditions of her ToL and remain in the Sydney Region, pregnancy must have added to her concerns. While Thomas can’t be ruled out completely as the father of Hannah’s second daughter, it’s improbable that he was. There is a photo of Sarah Ann on an Ancestry tree, it’s obviously a black and white pic, but Sarah looks quite pale and although that doesn’t exclude Thomas from the equation, he is the only convict described as “brown” among the extensive lists of convicts.
You have to admire Hannah Benton, she is a determined and resourceful woman! Sentenced to Death, Transported for Life to the opposite side of the world, implicated in a shipboard mutiny, starts life anew in the Female Factory, assigned to the cranky Drummond woman, tried again and sentenced to six months back in the Factory, married “out of the Factory” to Thomas, one child living, and possibly one child dead, then no husband and pregnant again, and all by the age of 24 or 27.! At last, with a Ticket of Leave tucked away, Hannah is finally in charge of her own destiny.
Its impossible to discover WHEN Hannah made the move to Hexham. The time frame stretches between the 10th December 1829 when she received her ToL in Sydney, and 3rd August 1831, the birth of Sarah Ann, in Hexham. Why Hexham? Her friend Celea has lived there for quite some time, married and started a family there, and until now Celea and William have enjoyed a reasonably stable existence in Hexham. So, why not!
Whenever she made the journey, it’s likely to have been by boat, a road trip would have been long and arduous. If she was pregnant at the time, a boat trip would certainly have been the way to go.
The Sydney / Newcastle / Sydney boat run 1828 – June 1830
Shipping Intelligence was vitally important for the colony and ship movements were generally recorded in the Sydney newspapers of the day.
Originally I hoped I might narrow down the list of boats Hannah et al might have taken to Newcastle, and, who know what records might turn up in the future.! I began collating the Shipping Intelligence from1828, for no particular reason other than the Census has Henry working for Ferdinand Anley on Mountjoye Farm, near Seaham, in the Hunter Valley.
Shipping intelligence
1828
The Sydney Gazette:
in January 1 boat arrived in Sydney, intended for Newcastle, blown south by “contrary winds”. The only other Shipping Intelligence between January and December noted only one boat arrival from Newcastle, in August – The Governor Macquarie
Sydney General Trade List first published in May 1828, also listed boat movements.
Publication was intermittent but even so, no boat is listed as arriving from or departing for Newcastle, even as an intermediate destination.
The Sydney Monitor: reported in August, “The Lord Liverpool for Newcastle”
1829
In 1829 the Sydney Gazette regularly published Shipping Intelligence, however the 1st recorded arrival from Newcastle was in September - The Samuel (14 Sept), closely followed by Liberty (18 Sept), Lord Liverpool (27 Sept), and (again) Samuel (27 Sept).
The Sydney General Trade List recommenced publication of shipping movements (Coastwise) from 1st July 1829. Between the 1st – 28th July the Sydney General Trade List recorded 16 arrivals and 16 departures specifically to/from Newcastle
Clearly the Sydney Gazette had a different Shipping Intelligence agenda so far as coastal and river boat activity was concerned. The burgeoning interest in Newcastle possibly inspired the reintroduction of the Sydney General Trade List(49).
The Sydney Monitor only reported Shipping Intelligence for November. The Liberty delivered one load of coal to Sydney, and the Lord Liverpool made the return trip twice(50 51).
The Sydney General Trade List and Mercantile Advertiser began reporting Shipping Intelligence in October. Between October and the end of December the Advertiser reported 40 arrivals and 35 departures(52) from Newcastle.
If the rapid increase of recorded boat traffic between Sydney and Newcastle is any indication, 1829 heralded the beginning of Newcastle as a serious extension of the colony.
1830
The Sydney Gazette continued as the major reporter of shipping movements in the colony and in the first 6 months of 1830 reported 38 arrivals and 31 departures from and to Newcastle.
Mary Ann is 3 ½ years old. Thomas seems to have gradually faded from the
picture, maybe he is already in the Liverpool lunatic asylum.